Each quarter, TRICARE Consumer Watch summarizes important results from the most recent adult survey for each region and service affiliation. The reports present TRICARE beneficiaries' experiences with their health care and health plan and utilization rates for preventive services, as they appear in the Consumer Reports.

Starting with Q2FY09 TRICARE Consumer Watch, ratings and composites scores will be based on questions taken from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Health Plan Survey (CAHPS) Version 4.0, instead of Version 3.0.

The new version of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) health plan survey, CAHPS Health Plan 4.0, was introduced by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). AHRQ worked with a number of stakeholders, including NCQA and the CAHPS Consortium, to make changes to the CAHPS questionnaire to improve the clarity of the questions -for instance, ensuring better comprehension of the questions among diverse populations and clarifying the providers referenced in certain questions. Some questions were replaced to address the topics of most interest to health plans, purchasers, and consumers. Resulting changes to the survey included changes to the number of core items, the wording and order of certain questions, and the wording and number of response scales.

We adopted these new questions in the HCSDB so we could use more recent benchmark data, which is also included in this quarter's Consumer Watch. Some composites have changed, and the Courteous & Helpful Staff composite is no longer reported. Scores for all CAHPS measures for all past quarters have been recalculated to make them comparable to the new scores and new benchmarks, except the Customer Service composite, for which comparable past questions did not exist.

Changes:

The Getting Needed Care composite no longer includes questions about finding a personal doctor or delays awaiting health plan approval.

The Getting Care Quickly composite no longer includes questions about care over the telephone or waiting in the doctor's office.

Doctors' Communication now refers only to the beneficiary's personal doctor.

Customer service includes questions about courtesy of customer service staff and ability to find information about the health plan

TRICARE Prime Enrollee Quarterly Consumer Watch Reports

These Consumer Watch Reports report the opinions of those TRICARE PRIME beneficiaries who were enrolled under PRIME and had a military or
civilian PCM for most of their care during the last 12 months.

“On October 1, 2013, the Department of Defense established the Defense Health Agency (DHA) to manage the activities of the Military Health System. These activities include those previously managed by TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), which was disestablished on the same date. During the next several months, all TMA websites will change to reflect the new DHA. We appreciate your patience during this transition."

7700 Arlington Boulevard, Suite 5101, Falls Church, VA 22042-5101

The appearance of hyperlinks to external Web sites does not constitute
endorsement by the Defense Health Agency of these Web sites or the
information, products or services contained therein. For other than
authorized government activities. The Defense Health Agency does not
exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at other
locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of
this DoD Web site. Accessibility/Section 508